The long road trip starts today…

TheThinkCure auction is down to its final 48 hours and KABC is beating Inside the Dodgers.

The latest thing that is included in the Inside the Dodgers package is a behind-the-scenes look at the Dodger archives, where you never know what you might find. Perhaps a photo with the World Series trophy or running into a Dodger legend from the team’s history. No, we don’t store them in the archives! But they’re in the offices almost every day and we see them all the time, something “the other Josh” can’t lay claim to.

That’s on top of what’s already out there…

- Meeting Joe Torre and taking part in his pregame media session

- Spending about an hour in the clubhouse during pregame, where we interact with numerous players each day, including possibly dealing with potential Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Manny Ramirez or Jeff Kent

- I can’t make any 100 percent guarantees, but I’m going to quietly mention that just about every day of my job requires me to interact with all of the Dodger broadcasters, including Vin Scully, Jaime Jarrin, Rick Monday, Charley Steiner, Fernando Valenzuela, Pepe Yniguez and Steve Lyons.

- Your name in the daily notes that are distributed to the media for a one-of-a-kind souvenir

AND IT’S ALL FOR CANCER RESEARCH. I think I might have mentioned that a few times.

My final plug would simply be to say that if this package were known to a much wider audience, I get the feeling it would be going for thousands of dollars. But, it’s basically only known to the small community here on ITD and the audience of DodgerTalk.

Here’s tonight’s lineup:

Kemp, CF

Ethier, RF

Kent, 2B

Manny, LF

Loney, 1B

Martin, C

Nomar, SS

Blake, 3B

Maddux, P

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471 Comments

may I just say, beautiful line up. Let’s beat those Phillis and show then that it was just not home field advantage that beat them last week!
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Josh- good luck with the auction. I really really wish I could pay for it. I think the WIN event cost me enough.
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GO DODGERS!

Nice lineup. Let’s hope there’s no left handed pitchers to face this series so we don’t have to see Pierre, Ardoin, or any of our other stiffs that allegedly can hit lefties better than Ethier and Loney.

lny4loney, true, the Dodgers have lots of “good hitters” but that won’t cut it if you want pitchers to actually throw strikes to Manny. In the Red Sox’ World Series years Mike Lowell had 120 RBIs backing Manny in 2007 and in 2004 a guy named Ortiz batted fourth to Manny’s 3rd spot. Don’t get me wrong, I think MartinLoneyKempEthier are future stars–all of them. But Manny has only a couple years left and the Dodgers need protection for him if he re-signs.

Well, how come Martin’s “days off” land him at 3B? Might as well be catching. Why is it that Jeff Kent can’t even pinch hit when he has the day off? Is he even at the ball park? Casey Blake has been no better than our beloved DeWitt the last several games. I can’t wait until Sept. 1 call ups when DY, DeWitt, Hu, etc. can put some pressure on these pathetic bench players we’ve been forced to use by Joe and Ned.

This line-up has hit 78 homers this year for the Dodgers.
Everyone of the 8 starters are capable of round trippers.
It’s great to have that positive feeling every inning. Actually we hardly ever feel that we’re out of the game. It seems like we always have a chance.
It’s nice to have Maddux back in there.
If all goes well I should be at tomorrow’s game. I’m off the VAC pending doctor’s approval. Whether it’s permanent or temporary, I don’t know for sure yet but the nurses don’t think I need it. There is still some drainage, but very little.
I have a regular dressing covering the wound.
I’ll probably know more by Monday.
GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!

Hu isn’t good. Just a defensive replacement. I was a hell of a defensive SS in college and couldn’t hit worth a damn and think I could hit as well as HU did. There is no way Hu is in the future of the dodger plans unless he can lay off those damn breaking balls down and away. A big difference from AAA and the Majors. Pitchers consistently will expose your weakness at the big league level.

Scott ~ I was wondering about Kent myself. You don’t see him just hanging out in the dugout like the rest of the players when they have a day off. Ethier and Loney are always visible in the dugout when they are not playing. It’s probably got something to do with veteran entitlement, I’m sure.

Scott. you are right. What makes me proud is how much praise and recognition he gets as a developing player. Earlier in the season Matt got a lot of slack for being lazy or not listening to the coaches or veteran players. But there has only been positive light around him and the fact that everyone (coaches, media, players, other teams) all agree that he is the future in baseball. He plays smarter and more efficient and has raised his averages and is playing fabulous baseball, and he still will improve his skills. We just need to help his base running some! lol :)

Philly should be great for our hitters.
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I’ve been irked all year that guys playing in bandboxes/Colorado — guys like Chase Utley, earlier Jay Bruce and Joey Votto(Reds), Dan Uggla, Matt Holliday — get all kinds of press for their homeruns while our young studs are ignored while barely off the pace despite playing in homer-depressing Dodger Stadium.
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Kemp — 15 HR
Ethier — 15 HR (in limted ABs; thanks JoJo)
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If these guys played half their games in Philly, Cincy, or Denver, they’d each have at least another 7 homeruns. The same applies to Martin and Loney who would be in the high teens.

scurtis, yeah, Hu did not hit well, but is Berroa doing any better? Hu is better than Berroa in the field at least. How about De Jesus? Berroa and Ozuna are not good options when Kent and or Martin are resting. I’d like to see DeWitt as a pinch hitter/2B replacement. Screw getting AB’s in the minors. That’s double talk if you ask me.

Don’t forget Hu had some eye trouble as well that didn’t come out until he was sent back down. Hu’s probably never to to rake, but the fact he seems to be on the “no trade” list would indicate that management is still fairly high on him.

scurtis,
I’m sure you were a terrific shortstop in college, and I don’t know you history or your hitting abilities.
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I do know that Chin Lung Hu has shown a progression that gives him a good chance to become a decent, maybe even good, major league hitter. I’ll take your word for it that he needs to learn to lay off the breaking stuff down and away. Many prospects have had the same problem — Matt Kemp for example. Some solve it; some don’t.
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Whether Hu will become a good major leaguer or not is yet to be seen.
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P.S. As baseball begins to return to a more normal balance between offense and pitching (although I doubt it will ever go back to the correct balance that existed in the 1970s), having a great-fielding, light-hitting shortstop on a contending team will come back into vogue. Although I wouldn’t go so far as to say that a guy like Mark Belanger will ever be valued again.

Hu wasn’t good, no. And ,yes, someone like Dewitt would be a much better replacement at this point. What I can say is that at least Berroa has shown a little bit of i improvement. Nothing spectacular, but the man gets more hits and has made improvements. Is he good enough for the bigs? no. Hu never showed improvement with his bat.
In conclusion- at least Berroa has made a little difference offensively.
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Hu will be fine. These guys just need to play and mature. Not everyone hits immediatly and if deWitt hit like he did the final 2 months before being demoted and not the first two you all would be calling him a bust too. Dewitt hit .182 and then .229 with 6 extra base hits in his last 150 ABs..better then Hu’s .129 sure but lets ease up on guys under 25 before making we retire them. or get them traded. Again today we have a dodger 3rd baseman/utility guy on a first place team, a catcher and a pitcher and meanwhile we have to give up 5 more prospects to replinish a bit.

Kemp’s .342 was unheralded. Especially by Joe Torre.
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I hate to defend the media who have been almost universally underappreciative of the Young Guns, but there is a decent reason why Kemp’s .342 didn’t get much play. Much of Kemp’s outstanding hitting happened as the season was winding down, the Dodgers (in the mind of the media, if not in the hearts of Dodgers fans) were out or almost out of contention and their attention was focused on pennant races.
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On August 13, with a month-and-a-half to go, Kemp was hitting .311. While very good, not something to get overly excited about if you’re ESPN.
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On the other hand, why JoJo — who apparently spent zero time finding out about his players in the four months between his hiring and Spring Training — didn’t pay more attention to Kemp’s .342 is compeletely indefensible.

Ha wow is Hal Bodley related to Ned or what? What a crappy article….This is pretty much the same series as last time. We should sweep these bums again. Philly’s stadium might give them an advantage but for the first time in a long time it gives our team an advantage too.

Am I the only person that thinks having Blake hit 8th is a travesty? It just doesn’t make sense to me. Nomar could go on the DL if he swats at a fly, let Blake hit 7th, hitting 8th is nullifying his power. Plus he’s not used to hitting in front of a pitcher at all, he’s hit the skids since Joe put him in there. Nomar can handle a bat well, all the better to put him 8 (no to mention his instability), Blake will get more flat pitches to hit and resume crankin the ball. The instability and lack of production at SS dictates that whoever is playing there should hit 8, Blake’s been healthy all year and produces better than our SS’s. Blake’s been bonbing in the 8th spot and should be moved.

I agree, jungar, Ethier was given the shaft for most of the season while Torre was “sticking it” to Pierre by leading him off for 1000 straight games. But, many of Kemp’s days on the bench came early when Torre was platooning everyone for the sole reason of being senile.

arayd~ your making to much sense, JOJO doesn’t understand common sense. Which is why he SUCKS as a manager.

Northstat/NS~ I was wondering why they did that.

Jungar/Scott~ I don’t understand why you are confused. Of course it’s a travesty that Matt and Andre aren’t playing everyday, but we are talking about JOJO the Clown. I don’t think he understands what he is doing. As it has been said before, if any of us produced like JOJO or NERD we woulnd’t have a job!!!

oh well, Blake’s a pro, I’m sure he’ll never make a peep about it and just make the adjustment, the #1 fundamental of the game to me, the ability to adapt and adjust. I’d like to see him re-signed for next year.

I agree on Blake. Nomar should bat 8th since he swings at everything near the umpire anyways.

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If we can get in to the playoffs I like our chances. I just don’t like our chances to get in. Our road ERA is 4.52. Everyone is a .283 hitter vs us on the road. We only have two good road arms and one is hurt and one is Bills. Vs Lowe on the road: .330 avg
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At home our era is 2.96 and the leauge hits .223.
All but 12 games left are on the road.

If you look at Casey Blake’s career, he’s just an average player really. It depends who’s playing 2B and SS next year as well. I wouldn’t over pay for a guy who’s going to turn 36 next year and is slightly above average on his good days. He’s barely been a regular for Cleveland all these years.

Blake hitting 8th is a testament to the strength of our lineup. One through eight, there is no weakness.
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I would bat Martin 8th given this group of starters, not because of his recent struggles, but becasue it makes sense to have a guy with speed bat before the pitcher.
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But except for Manny and Kemp, the rest of the starters are similar enough in their abilities and stats that one could reasonably bat them in almost any order.

almost game time :) this should be fun to watch.
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All I know is that this is a lineup that looks strong top to bottom. We don’t get the see one like this too often. but it comes down to them playing efficiently, producing, and not committing 4 errors in one game.
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Let’s go this boys! Come on Dodgers. Let’s get a W for Maddux!!

Max, I agree that article by Bodley was downright silly and not insightful or informative at all.

As to why Berroa and Azuna are on the big league club and Hu and DeWitt are not should be obvious: Ned and Joe prefer experience over anything else. To be fair, Hu did not do very well when he did get a chance and after a great start, things caught up to DeWitt as well. It is way too early to give up on either of these players. A younger, unproven player really has to be outstanding quickly and demonstrate staying power as Piazza and Karros did in their day and as Russell Martin, Kemp, Loney, and Ethier have done. For Martin it was rather easy to cement his status but it has not been so easy for the others as management obviously had doubts about each one until such time as they made it impossible for management to think otherwise. Ethier still has not convinced management.

Set in the fictional town of Los Angeles, California, the plot centers on Dr. dodgereric (who plays himself), a local blogger, who finds a rash of fellow bloggers having their blog tags mysteriously changed. Another blogger is a fellow contributor (jhall), who tells him that his mother, dnelly, has this same strange fear about his brother, enchantedsunset.

Assured at first by the blog administrator (Josh Rawitch), that the cases are nothing but “epidemic mass hysteria,” dodgereric soon discovers, with the help of his friend jhall, that the bloggers are in fact being replaced by simulations grown from plantlike pods; perfect physical duplicates who kill and dispose of their human victims. The Pod People are indistinguishable from normal people, except for their utter lack of emotion and the strange fact that their tags get mysteriously changed. It started slowly, with kahlifornia and old_fogey falling prey. Then they started falling like dry pine needles in a hurricane. Dnelly, northstateblues, jnv, and finally, martinloneykemp. There were many others, but the scriptwriter had to rush off to meet his son. But the saddest change was when enchantedsunset fell to a mere number, 19882008.The pod people work together to secretly spread more pods—which grew from “seeds drifting through space for years”—in order to replace the entire human race.

The film climaxes with dodgereric and jhall attempting to escape the pod people, intending to warn the rest of dodgerblogdom. They hide; jhall falls asleep and is subverted, changed to 57dodger. With the pod people close behind, a seemingly crazed dodgereric runs onto the highway frantically screaming of the alien force which has overrun Los Angeles to the passing motorists and looks into the camera and yells, “They’re here already! You’re next!”

I think Hu and DeWitt belong in the minors. Simple as that. The problem with Ned is his bridges to youth, suck. If they were good we wouldn’t care. We ask an awful lot out of a bunch of 23, 24, 25 year olds (only Dre is 26) and meanwhile the vets hit 240 for 4 months (the good vet. those are the best vet numbers, nomar cant stay on field, sweeney, jones cant break 150 and Pierre is Pierre) and they wonder why Kemp can’t run to third right. It’s been one big deflection unfarily onto them because what are they gonna say and plus Kemp is still learning how to run to 3rd, it’s true. But the list of terrible vets aquired over the last 4 years is long, if they aquired good vets (like Manny and Blake so far) then we wouln’t mind

Scott & arayd, I believe the same thing about Blake. I can feel for the guy never knowing where he’ll be in the lineup from day to day. It could have something to do with why he’s so streaky. Seems there’s no happy medium for him. Hot for a bit, then ice cold for a spell. If Torre would leave him in one spot for a while, I’m sure he could make adjustments. I would also like to see him in the 7th spot every day.

Hey everybody, I’ve not been on for the last few games. But it’s becoming very clear that our offense has taken a few games off. Not the best time to be doing that. Also, it’s becoming clear to me that AZ’s pitching just may very well be the cause for our not winning this division this year. It sucks, but it’s just the facts that they’re not going to be going on any losing streaks any time soon, and with the way the schedule’s lined up, we might be in trouble here.

messagebear ~ If you are still out there, I keep thinking you are next – too many letters in your name, and the whole address thing is still there – LOL!! Let’s hope not because you have one of those signature names as well.

I’d like to say that scurtis, but really, I’m not so sure. We certainly need to start playing a whole lot better. Maddux must feel like he’s back in San Diego, with the way our lineup is coming through for him.

acardona16, seriously, It’s really getting annoying. This team has been inconsistent all year, it’s going to catch up with them here at the end I’m afraid. They just for whatever reason have not at all accept for that one stretch looked like they could pull of the type of win streak that it’s going to take for them to win the division. It’s really irritating because this team should be somewhere around 5 or 6 games ahead, but I’ll be surprised if we can pull it out. The schedule is going to hurt a lot. On the flip side, we still get AZ 6 more times, and we can really make up ground in a hurry in those games.

Hi Josh,
I placed a $600 bid on your auction but it was not enough. Sorry if this had already been asndered but I could not find clarification: Does the winner get to bring a guest along as well? If so, I’d bid higher so that my wife, who is as big a Dodger fan as I am, could come along too!

And, my prediction comes true. See, a week ago, I would have felt like we could have come back from a 3 run defecit, not anymore. I just don’t get it with this team. The players are all in place, the pitchin staff is strong, our lineup is pretty loaded now…. WHAT’S THE FREAKIN’ DEAL!! DO WE WANT TO WIN THIS DAMN THING OR NOT!?!?!? On a side note… WHERE’S THE FIERY LARRY BOWA WE ALL HEARD AND GOT EXCITED ABOUT!?!?!? WE NEED SOME DAMN YELLING!!

OK, well, hopefully the Marlins can get to the D-Backs old guy tonight…. We’re in trouble if we go 3 back… This year is getting frustrating more and more by the minute. It’s like a total let down… They get your hopes up that they may have figured it out, and be on their way… then…. Like the homer that just happened…. done. BTW What moron starts Maddux for his first start with the club in the smallest bandbox of a field with the most run productive team in the NL!?!?!? errrrr

He was great for the first 4 innings, but you had to know that this would happen in Philly. They are a great lineup, we swept them because our hitting… Our pitching was ok towards the end of the homestand… But now, we’re just useless at the plate. We should be hitting homers out of this place left and right…. Everyone else who plays here seems to be able to.

I’m still here, nelly and still have my whole e-mail address, although it’s not my correct e-mail address. I got cut out of the blog about two months ago. It was after I had made one of my more vitriolic posts about the management, and I thought they finally cut me off. What I did then was to make a new registry at mlb.com – I kept my “messagebear” moniker, but wheras my real e-mail address was @yahoo, I changed it to @msn.com, and that’s what I’m still working with. Now, if anybody tried to e-mail me personally at msn.com, it wouldn’t come to me, because it’s not a real address. However, I’ve never logged out and had to log back in to mlb.com, and that’s probably the only reason I’ve not been affected by the recent name changes.

messagebear ~ that’s good!! However, I don’t think enchanted has ever had to sign back in until recently. When I am here at home, I go straight here, but at school, I have to sign in every time now where I didn’t have to before. This is a very strange thing, especially when people say they don’t know where the name (or number) came from. I guess we will have to wait and see :)

First, nice song by kahli using “Send in the Clowns” yesterday – it was hilarious. At the risk of sounding like I’m patting myself on the back, dodgereric wasn’t quite right with his “first Judy Collins” guess. An advanced google search couldn’t find it on the dodgereric blog, but I “sent in the clowns” before: see the first comment in this thread:http://insidethedodgers.mlblogs.com/archives/2008/06/the_latest_from_the_ravine.html
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The takeoff on In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was LMAO funny too!

testing that I was really logged in! Who knows how this site will behave?
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Crummy game tonight – Loney = 3 hits, everyone else = 2 hits. That simply will not do, esp. against crummy pitchers like Kendrick and in a bandbox like Moneylenders Park.
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Hate to be an “I told you so”, but Maddux’s results outside Petco continue to be poor.
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I blame Ned.

I hate losing. Especially when we need these wins more than ever!! We can do this, the Phillies don’t have to beat us down, we’ve already proven it!
I can’t comment on the game cause I kinda fell asleep during the middle inning and missed the big HR by the Phillies.
The line up was there, they didn’t execute.
Good job to Loney, I know he had a great night :)
Go Dodgers!!! Lets go at it tomorrow!!!

Hey Amy ~ I fell asleep when it was 3-1 and woke up to 7-1. I guess we should be thankful – lol!! I also missed Andre’s home run because I was working on stuff for next week and talking too much. I am glad James had a good game. I am always pulling for him to do well. When at home, I wear his shirt with Andre’s jersey over it, so I have my bases covered.

Hey nelly, the cowboys are winning, I never got to watch the game tonight. Went out to eat with our neighbors. Just got back and found we had a lousy nite. We need to catch fire and start winning more. We should have one of the best hitting teams in the league but not showing it.

hey Boblee ~ Yes, the Cowboys are winning, but it’s only preseason. Who am I kidding – they are picking the Redskins to come in last in our division. However, they think we are going to have a tough division so I guess we will have to see.

The suffering begins – the Giants and Padres are playing, and it’s like watching the two teams in the loser brackets playing each other. All that they will accomplish this weekend is deciding who will take up the bottom spot in our division.
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song writing time :)

Very disappointing loss. I didn’t get to see much of the game, but I think Torre left Maddux in too long. I think we would have still had a look at the game if he took him out sooner. I am kind of wishing they kept Stultz up and didn’t make the trade now, especially after hearing what Maddux’s era is on the road this year on the post game show. I hope Joe doesn’t mess with the personell in the lineup tomorrow. Loney and Ethier should both be in the lineup tomorrow regardless of it being a lefty for Philadelphia.

Hey Ward Dear…. How was your day? Very tough game to watch today, not that I watched much. I fell asleep between 3-1 and 7-1, and I guess that was a good thing. It kind of seems like the honeymoon period may be ending, but then I am hoping it was just the circumstance of having to travel back east and play without that travel day off they seem to get most of the time.

Well, I hope you had a good time out. We barbequed, and I managed to cut my finger making the salad of all things. I was trying to take the pit out of an avacado.
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As far as the other ~ I don’t think there is any light that can help reading that crap. I understand that we go off topic quite a bit, but usually not in the middle of a game, and if we do, it’s usually directed to someone. trublue thinks I should print some of it out use it as an editing tool. Hell, I can’t figure out how to fix it half the time that’s how bad it is. LOL!!!

porklinks (I can’t even remember your original name…it’s too confusing on this blog), as soon as I submitted “Send in the Clowns” I could have sworn someone else did it first. It was just too perfect a song for Joe. So kudos to you–THE ORIGINAL!!! As for the game tonight, baseball, at the end of the day, is a simple game of throw, hit, catch. The Dodgers are either good enough to win…or they aren’t. All the angst and weeping and bottle throwing won’t change that fact. I’ve said it all season: this team is a year away–and that was before Manny. I still feel that way. If they sign him in the off season to mentor the youth, add some arms, this team will be great. But…………………..NO WAY HAVE

kpookiemon ~ porklinks is your fellow Old Fogey/westernmost who lost his original name the same day you lost Kahliforni . We were wondering who will be next to lose their original identity seeing how it is happening at an alarming rate right now.

LOL nelly! I have a mental picture of one of those “sentences” written on your chalk board (I’m guessing there aren’t any more actual chalk boards anymore). You’re standing there, your left hand cupping your right elbow and your right hand cupping your chin and staring at the “sentence, wondering where to start making corrections! LOL!

kahli, porky used to be westernmost. I only know that because that’s the name at the end of his song on our blog. And give yourself a break. With 370 songs, we’ve repeated more than one song! Yours was wonderful!

It was FABULOUS!!! You had quite a few comments after it was posted. As far as the name changes, it’s really strange that most of them are like enchanted – they have no idea where the new name came from. I would love to know whoever gave enchanted his number what they were thinking.

I really kind of feels like that movie. One day/hour/minute they are one name and then the next thing you know, we are trying to figure out who this new person is on ITD when all along it’s someone we’ve known all along.

Joe, not really your fault tonight…but I can’t resist. In spite of all your successes, sometimes I think you’re just the wrong fit for so young a team. Please prove us wrong.

The worst skipper we know.
(Torre is flawed, Torre is flawed)
He worries me, so.
(Torre is flawed, Torre is flawed)
If he’d leave the line-up alone
Players wouldn’t have to groan
Sent from NY on loan.

Torre is flawed, Torre is flawed.

Grady should be his name.
(Torre is flawed, Torre is flawed)
To me they’re about the same.
(Torre is flawed, Torre is flawed)
Every time the team shows some clout
He moves players in and out
How could he stoop so low?

Torre is flawed, Torre is flawed.

Best players want to play.
(Torre is flawed, Torre is flawed)
But vets still make his day.
(Torre is flawed, Torre is flawed)
He thinks his advice is a contribution
But if he would leave that would be the solution
And don’t come back no more.

Ward dear… it June Darlin’ again. I just realized I must have fallen asleep. It wasn’t a half hour, more like an hour and a half. See, I definitely know the feeling…. good night again (even though you are already in bed).
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Kahli – love the name game song – funny. I don’t know the original song ethier (either). I know the Judas Priest song, but which way is the 20 years – forwards or backwards. Anyhow – great words!!!!

xoxrussell ~ I don’t sleep with anything Dodger related other than a shirt every once in a while. However, I think my Andre shrine in my classroom speaks for itself – LOL. I have one wall that is just Dodger stuff (all players, etc), and then around my desk area, one side is family, the other side is Andre. Ethieracholic for sure…..

DNelly, I think it’s one of those superstitions. If I put the balls back in their cubes, then it won’t be right. I have a couple of Matt and Andre autographed balls, so these are the good luck ones. :)

Matos was winning 3-2, with 1:02 in the second round, when he fell to the mat after being hit by his opponent, Kazakhstan’s Arman Chilmanov. He was sitting there, awaiting medical attention, when he was disqualified for taking too much injury time. Fighters get one minute, and Matos was disqualified when his time ran out.

Matos angrily questioned the call, pushed a judge, then pushed and kicked referee Chakir Chelbat of Sweden. Matos then spat on the floor and was escorted out.

“He was too strict,” Gonzalez said, referring to the decision to disqualify Matos. Afterward, he charged the match was fixed, accusing the Kazakhs of offering him money.

“This is a strong violation of the spirit of taekwondo and the Olympic Games. The sanctions are the following and are effective immediately: Lifetime ban of the coach and athlete in all championships sanctioned by the (World Taekwondo Federation) and at the same time, all records of this athlete at the Beijing Games will immediately be erased,” said the announcer, reading a WTF release.

In his first match, Matos defeated Italy’s Leonardo Basile, then beat China’s Liu Xiaobo 2-1 in the quarterfinals. But he lost to South Korean Cha Dong-min in the semis to land in the bronze-medal match.

“To me it was obvious he was unable to continue,” Chilmanov said. “His toe on his left foot was broken.”

Matos won the gold medal in this division at the 2000 Sydney Games, dedicating the victory to his mother, who died on the day of the opening ceremony. At the 2004 Athens Games, he finished 11th.

Matos’ tantrum followed a day of confusion on the mats.

Earlier Saturday, China’s double gold medalist Chen Zhong crashed out in the quarterfinals after initially being declared the winner.

The day was rife with upsets.

Working her way through the easier of the two pools, Norway’s relatively unheralded Nina Solheim won her first two bouts with a comfortable point margin and defeated 2005 world champion Natalia Falavigna of Brazil in the semis to meet world champion Maria del Rosario Espinoza of Mexico for the over 67-kg (147.4 pounds) title.

Espinoza won the final handily, going ahead in the first round and never falling behind. The final score was 4-1.

She had her hands full getting through the quarters 4-2 against Sweden’s Karolina Kedzierska, who launched several high kicks that did not connect. Espinoza then took on Britain’s Sarah Stevenson, the 2006 European champion, in the semis. Espinoza dominated the match, earning her final berth with a 4-1 win.

Espinoza was to fight Chen in the semis, but the judges overturned an earlier ruling and made Stevenson the winner of the quarterfinal bout in which Chen scored in the closing seconds of the second round and then Stevenson tagged her with a head kick—worth two points—in the third.

The judges ruled Stevenson’s kick wasn’t solid enough for points, and Chen was declared the winner 1-0. After Britain protested, and the result was changed to put Stevenson in the semifinal.

The decision brought loud jeers from the crowd. China did not appeal.

It was the first time a match result has been overturned since taekwondo became an official Olympic sport in 1990.

“I obviously had scored. I don’t know if they weren’t watching or what,” Stevenson said. “That’s one of the things I hate about this sport.”

Stevenson won bronze, along with Brazil’s Falavigna.

Cha made it four-for-four gold medals for South Korea. In taekwondo, countries are allowed to enter only four athletes.

Cha fell behind when Alexandros Nikolaidis of Greece nailed him with a head kick 15 seconds into the bout. But he came back with a body kick and a head shot of his own to take back the lead, adding another point to go 4-3 going into the third round.

Nikolaidis evened it out at 4-4 with a body kick, but Cha scored with just 18 seconds left to claim the gold in the men’s over-80 kg (176 pounds) division.

Daba Modibo Keita of Mali, the 2007 world champion, was defeated in overtime in the quarterfinals by Nigeria’s Chika Yagazie Chukwumerije. The Nigerian then went up against Athens silver medalist Nikolaidis.

Nikolaidis scored with a head kick in the third round, then again in the final second to advance to the final.

xoxrussell ~ I consider Ethierbear like that. He travels back and forth with me most days unless there is a day game or an off day. However, he was left at school yesterday, and we were winning when I left, so hmmmmm!! Also, I didn’t put on any Dodger stuff when I got home, hmmmmmm! Those are both superstitions I have, and I didn’t do ethier (either) – hmmmmm! LOL!!

dnelly ~ Good morning. Today we are the game of the week on Fox. I think it is a good sign because we play better on national T.V. I would like to thank the Marlins for helping us out during this bump in the road to the division title. Let’s go ANDRE; MATT; RUSSELL AND MANNY!!!

Good Morning trublue ~ I didn’t realize we were playing a day game. That’s good we are on fox, other than dealing with their announcers who can sometimes be annoying – I think they carry an east coast bias too.

Dnelly ~ Sometimes when I get annoyed with the announcers I just push my mute button and it’s a very pleasant experience! If Karros is one of the announcers, he does a good job. He is pretty fair minded and I think he may be an Ethieraholic too!

DNelly..my sister is a first grade teacher so she is also caught up in the frenzy of school starting. I know what you’re going through. She also is teaching grad school at Cal State Long Beach so she had to take care of all that yesterday. Talk about frustration!! And school hasn’t started yet!! Oh, and she is not a Dodger fan but she puts up with me. Her passion is surfing, wetsuit and all. :)

sparkleplenty/trublue ~ yes, definitely better than Charlie at times, and I hope Eric is broadcasting. That would be great. If you read the things he writes on their blog – “Sons of Steve Garvey”, he (and the rest of that gang) are all very supportive of Andre, and the fact that he should be “Everyday ‘Dre”. They like all the young guns, and they have a lot of the same view points that we do when the lineups are not the best, etc, etc. Then again, there aren’t many places now that don’t have that opinion anymore.

I know what you’re saying, TruBlue – there’s not many songs on our oldies stations that I don’t know already. Can pretty much sing ‘em in my sleep – LOL.
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Nel, I hear ya about all the support the young Dodgers are getting everywhere. The recognition has to be encouraging. Now if only Joe would wake up and smell the roses. I think he’s stuck at the skunk cabbage . . . .

xoxrussell ~ I hear surfing has it’s own addiction, especially if you leave near the beach and can pretty much do it everyday. As far as school, this first week is always the hardest. The kids are tired and hot, and all they want to do is go home in the afternoon. They are used to half days in kinder. However, ss the routines settle in, it gets better and runs much more smoothly.

Having Scioscia as the Dodger manager would be a dream come true. It really irks me that the Angels play Dodger baseball and the Dodgers don’t. A manager who appreciates his entire team, doesn’t knock them in the press, etc., etc., would be terrific. If we could only find a young Tommy Lasorda, who isn’t afraid of showing enthusiasm – instead of Torre, sitting there in the dugout, looking like he’s at a funeral . . . sheesh!!!

Eventhough it’s a left-handed pitcher, today Andre should be playing everyday. He has hit 5 homeruns in 7 games, and he has only went 1 game between the homestand and yesterday where has hasn’t gotten at least one hit.

Amen, Nel. Andre is playing so well now, it’s a crime to bench him. The only way he’ll lift his BA against lefties is to let him hit against them. Remember in Andre’s Before The Bigs how his dad mentioned working with him when he was younger so he could improve his hitting against southpaws?

I must be tired, the post at 7:39 is so messed up. Don’t you wish you had a take-back button that can retrieve it. Okay, I don’t know why the word “everyday” is in there. Oh my goodness – oberon might be contagious – oh noooo!! Please don’t let the boys see – LOL!!!!

sparkleplenty – That was awesome how is dad did that. That is not and easy thing to do, but the determination he had to give Andre that practice. I still would like to know what Joe is looking at when he thinks of Andre’s at-bats against lefties. There are many times when Andre gets out, but it’s been a productive out if Matt (JP earlier) is able to steal a base while he is up to bat. He very rarely swings at the first pitch, and he usually works the count pretty well, and this is against all pitchers.

Success comes in many shades (if you’ll pardon the artistic comparison). Often a ball hit to the right side to move the runner along is just as valuable as a base hit. Or a fly ball to score a runner from third. Or, like Russell did the other night, squaring around to bunt to protect a runner who is stealing. We recognize these value, and it’s frustrating that Joe appears not to. He preaches patience, and I see that our young guys ARE patient, so they “get it”. Maybe Joe needs glasses . . remember, it’s how he feels, it has nothing to do with statistics.

sparkleplenty – Andre is the most patient I believe. We ran stats on that and the number of pitches he takes compared to the number of plate appearanced he has had. Maybe I need to run that again to see how Blake and Manny fit in now. I don’t think it’s been done since they have been on the team.

Bluecrewgirl ~ Wow!! I can’t believe my eyes. Two games in a row with lefties pitching and Andre and James are still in the lineup – Good for Joe. It is amazing to see Andre doing so well. I knew he would do well, but 5 home runs in 7 games is pretty impressive and hard not to notice. Even fantasy reports are noticing now, which is good, that means it’s not just Dodger fans who are noticing.
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GO DODGERS!!

I know DNelly, I couldn’t believe it either. I hope they come out with more passion and fire today. They’ve seemed really flat emotionally since the day off after Sunday’s game. I think it would have been better if they didn’t have the day off and maybe had a day of in Philly on Thursday so they could have rested after the flight. Regardless, they need to suck it up and turn it up a notch from here on out. Gotta do some errands before the game, so I’ll catch you all later.

Bluecrewgirl – the gnats morning radio crew were talking about the long trip back from Atlanta with no day off, and I would have to assume the Dodgers go through similar things. See you later bluecrewgirl – GO DODGERS!!!

Hey guys, great lineup today, looks good on paper, we just need to produce. Time is running out, and the B-Backs are doing their best to keep us in the race. Hopefully we can get a game back today, and build some momentum. Anyway, I’ll talk to you guys later, and GO BLUE!! LET’S GET BACK ON TRACK!!

PS
How’s that for posotive Nelly!?!? I’ve been kind of bummed with these bums lately, and it’s been hard to root them on… so, LETS KICK SOME PHILLY HIDE!!

Hi Brandon ~ I completely understand the emotion, believe me. It is very frustrating seeing this line up not hit the ball like they should. Like you and many have said, as soon as pitching and hitting figure it out together, it will be lights out. That just seems to be more difficult than we all thought I guess. Hope you are having a good day.
GO DODGERS!!
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Nelly ~ ETHIERaholic :)

Yeah, it’s so strange…. Makes you really curious about what will happen next year. I’m guessing that the outcome of this year will determine what happens to Coletti. It could save his job if we make the playoffs, otherwise, I’m guessing he gets canned, he’s made Macourt look like a fool with some of his signings. I just hope they resign Manny, and build all the young guys around him, we should be great next year, but I’m pretty sure that I’ve been saying that to myself for a good couple of years in a row now.

I just looked at the box score from the AZ game last night. Did anyone know that the Marlins got LoDuca back? I had no idea. I also noticed that Dunn went 0fer and k’d 3 times. Man, if it was not for their pitching, this division would be ours easily.

CRAP. CRAP. CRAP. I hate when the Dodgers are on Fox’s game of the week. Then, being in St. Louis, they show the Cards/Braves game today and then I can’t get the Dodgers game on MLB.TV. This sucks big time. Guess I’ll go watch the Waterloo homecoming parade this afternoon. Crap. I’ll have to wait till the game is over at least half an hour to watch on MLB.TV archive game. I’ll just not be where I can get ball scores.

That sucks boblee. I know how you feel. For a time when I was in high school we had to move away from California and I remember how hard it was not be be able to at least listen to the Dodgers on the radio, except for when they played a team in the area we were in.

Bluecrewgirl, I did that for years. Use to listen to atlanta station, cincinnati, cubs and any other game I could get when playing the Dodgers.
Now makes me mad when Fox always shows the Cards game here in St. Louis and I can’t even watch on MLB.TV which when I subscribed I was supposed to get all LA games and this is about the 6th or 7th I have not been able to get.

I like Grace but didn’t know Grace was an idiot. He think Loney was in that clean up spot all season long and said since Manny came he would be move down a spot and was never in that spot. He also said Jeff Kent was a good basketball player.

One other thing I was thinking about. If you’re Manny, and we don’t make the postseason, how likely are you to resign with us? I mean, I know money really is what talks, but so does winning…. Could get to be really bad.

Yeah, not a good start at all… This team is kind of giving me the feeling that we’re going to finish like we did last year. We just choked down the stretch, we had an even better record last year, and we really screwed it up. I’ve just got a feeling that we’re headed down the same path.

OK, I’M F’N DONE!!! YOU SUPPORT THIS DAMN TEAM ALL YEAR LONG AND THEY LET YOU DOWN ALL THE FREAKIN’ TIME!! THEY HAVE NO DAMN BALLS! THEY DON’T GIVE A CRAP! THEY TEASE YOU WITH TALENT THAT MAYBE ONE DAY WILL ROLL AROUND AND HAPPEN… NOT THIS YEAR!!! JUST GOD DAMN FRUSTRATING, AND DOES ANYONE GIVE ANY KIND OF A **** WHATSOEVER!?!?!?!? WHERE’S KENT? WHERE’S MANNY? WHERE’S TORRE? WHERE’S THIS SUPPOSEDLY HIGH STRUNG BOWA!?!?!? WE NEED SOME DAMN FIRE!!! AND WE DON’T HAVE IT… THIS TEAM SUCKS ****, AND I’M EMBARASSED TO SHOW ANYONE MY OFFICE WHICH IS LOADED WITH DODGER STUFF, WHICH MY FRIEND WHO IS A D-BACKS SAYS IS CRAP ANYWAY… MAYBE HE’S RIGHT….***** THIS TEAM!! I’M THROUGH!

I just sent an e-mail to customer service for MLB.TV requesting an adjustment on my account as I was misled when I was told by a rep that I would get all the Dodger games on MLB.TV. I will wait to see if I get an answer and if not I will ask Visa to refund all charges as I was lied to and nowhere in the original agreement was there reference to a national blackout.

OK, so, now that I’m cooled off a little bit,…Here’s what happens for the rest of this game. Kershaw will calm down, and hold the Phillies to nomore runs, our pen will hold them down also…. But our offense on the other hand will not do a damn thing against Hamels, and we’ll probably lose 3-1… That’s my gues anyway… By the time we get to AZ to try and salvage any kind of dignity of a season we can, I’m guessing we’ll be out of first by maybe 5 games. Season over…. Oh well..

Guess I’m not missing a great game anyway. Crap. This team is so frustrating. They play good one week and then lousy the next. Some days the guys act like they’ve never had a bat in their hands before.

Well, a little Nelly, I’ll feel better if we win this game. This team needs a great big kick in the rear… We HAVE to win this game. AZ is not going to lose a lot in a row, their pitching is just too good.

Way too many pitches for Kershaw… It sucks, but with him, you’ve got to take the good with the bad until he matures. Kind of reminds me of Peavy when he was younger. He struggled quite a bit, but you could see he was going to be awesome. Hopefully Kershaw is able to get to that point.

Guys, I know Nomar is a better hitter than Berroa, but lately…. Not a whole lot better. This team does not look anything like the team that swept Philly and took 2 of 3 from the Brewers last week… Can we please find the culprit who kidnapped that team, and bring them to justice!!

This team really needs another walk off, or an emotional come from behind win… something…. But it’s not like they have not had those, they;ve had a bunch… They just don’t seem to be able to keep momentum, and they just let up…. I’ve never really seen anything like it as far as the inconsistency.

I am so far so good on my prediction. Kershaw has calmed down, and will pitch a great game… Our offense is well on their way to proving me right and just rolling over for Hamels. Thus wasting another quality start this year. But hopefully, I’m wrong, we come back, win this thing, get back into 1st and have a great finish… I want this team to prove me wrong so bad…. I want them to succeed so badly…. I just want them to go on a tear and kick some ***…. But they really don’t seem to want to.

I’ve noticed a connection between our success and the success of the top of the order. Matt Kemp and Ethier have been a little down lately. Yes, I know Ethier has hit well, but it seems like Kemp has cooled off, and so has Blake and Kent, and Manny has come back down to earth. I wonder how many teams go into Philly and only score 3 runs total in their first 2 games of a 3 game series…. Probably not many.

This team is rediculous. Every time you think they are streaking they end of losing 4 -5 to settle into a .500 team which is exactly what they are. We added all of this talent and still can’t win. The starting pitching stinks, the bullpen stinks and based on the last play in Center in Phili, Matt Kemp should be sent to AA Jacksonville. Maybe then he will get the message that you need to be focused all of the time. If I was Kershaw rookie or no rookine I would be in his face. Once the Dodgers are 4 games out this thing is over. How many times can you climb the hill get tied with the Dbacks and then end up falling back. We need to clean house this winter. I can’t watch 125 games a year at 3 hours per game to go through 20 years of no wins in the playoffs. These are the Dodgers for God sakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, if we somehow kidnap all of the D-Backs and hold them at gunpoint, they’re not able to play anymore games all year…. Then we might have a shot… Otherwise, I’ve seen enough… I’ll keep watching, because I’m a gullable, naieve fan who supports his favorite team. but guys, I’ve had it… I can’t handle watching this crap. This team has so far to go before it can be a contender…. How many teams can add the type of players at the deadline that we have, and then not achieve anything… Infact, lose ground, not gain…. Everything that needs to be said has been said… It’s just really frustrating, and borderline makes you hate sports… When you get amped up for a great season, when in reality we have been not very competitive all season. This year went down the dumps last year when se signed Pierre, Schmidt, Jones, and all of the other houselceaning that needs to be done. We might have something to look forward to next year if we get rid of some of that junk and keep Manny. Kemp and Ethier continue to improve, and we get an ace for the staff to go with Kershaw, Lowe, maybe Penny, Kuroda, and who knows what Maddux is going to do. Try to keep Blake, and put Dewitt at 2nd, we have to have Manny’s bat in there. I guess just hope for the best… It just really looks like this is just not out year gang… We would have been perfectly well off without having spent so much money on all of these busts and being a crappy, rebuilding team for a couple of years in order to be good again. Because in the end, if you don’t make the playoffs in a division where the winner is probably going to maybe be .500. What kind of a waste does that make your team look like, especially when your payroll is as high as ours is… This is not a team that I can find myself cheering for. Simple as that… They tend to give up, act childish at times, don’t take advantage of the players that they have. Just basically are willing to settle for 2nd best, and calling it a “learning” year…. How many more of these do we get to endure? I’m tired of realizing that Tracy had a team fo 92 wins, and Grady had a team win 88 or something like that…. It’s frustrating when this team is way better than any of those, but yet is nowhere near them in victories… I’m done, I’m not going to waste anymore of my typing on here, not like anyone is really going to read this anyway…. way too long… Sorry guys… I’m just really deflated… this team is the ultimate tease… Yay for football season… basketball will be back too before you know… UNLV Should be good this year… something to look forward to I guess. Freakin’ Dodgers!!

The Dodgers are exactly what they appear to be: a .500 team. Personally, I feel Grandpa Joe could have done a MUCH BETTER job this year, but in the words of Kent, I’m just some “blogger,” so what do I know? This team needs a manager that will help young talent thrive. Maybe it’s Joe…maybe not. I don’t think so, but I don’t have an alternate suggestion. The glass half full tells me Kemp and Ethier have made huge strides this year, Billingsley, too. Loney seems to have run in place, Martin a bit of a regression, lately. Kershaw is still learning–which might be the best reason for having re-acquired Maddux. 20 years of futility can’t be fixed with one big bat, especially when your owner can’t seem to decide who is running his show…because he shows little faith in Colletti, a sentiment shared by all the fans.

MP, very true…. also agree with you sl7…. This team seriously lacks any kind of compettive edge… Manny is really laid back, Kemp and Ethier are still young, Martin has never been an in your face guy from what I can tell, our pitchers are all kind of blah guys. Nomar is laid back, Kent is getting to the point where it seems like he’s just ready to retire, noone on the coaching staff has really come as advtertised, especially Bowa, Casey Blake is just like a sit there and take it like a little bitch kind of guy. Loney again, young…. I think I’ve covered everyone…. They really need to CARE!!! GET FIRED UP!! YELL, SPIT, KICK, SCREAM! DO SOMETHING FOR GOD’S SAKE!! They’re going to have to sign that type of player in the offseason too, because we don’t have that player in the minors either. I hate to say it, but the last player we had who was a fiery competitor who seemed to take on that role was on roids and a cheater…. But boy do I miss having Loduca’s passion…. go dodgers…. blah… sounds like I’m at some sort of a nursing home, and I’m trying to be quiet to not disturb anyone who might be sleeping… WAKE THE HELL UP, YOU’RE A GOD DAMN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM!!

What’s with you people? That’s what Rollins means when he says front runners! You are all yeah team when we are winning but, heavens forbid, we lose a game or two and, you have given up. We are NEVER out of the race unless there is one game to go and we are two out!

Thanks 57dodger ~ I love this team and they may be going through a rough stretch right now. But, I have faith that things will come together and we will win. Arizona is going to go through a bad spell too, every team does it. We are supposed to be fans — sometimes critical, fine — and as fans we support our TEAM!

TruBlue, I’m normally in total agreement with you… But this team has driven me to the point of insanity… I’m a diehard Dodger fan and noone can challenge that… But I’ll be damned if I’m going to root on a bunch of guys who seem to just give up, and suddenly forget what got them in the position that they’re in. They look lost out there, and it’s disgusting… this team SHOULD be in a much better position. But since it came from you Trublue, and I like you a lot, and you seem like a very nice lady… I’ll lay off the negative comments until after the season, and we’re in the position that you stated…. But you have to make me a deal… That if we’re in that position, you have to let me vent all I want, because it will have been a wasted season like no other… deal?

One of the first time I agree with Charlie “The Dodgers need some smelling salts”. frustrated. kinda don’t want to go to San Bernardino anymore but …I’ll go. The Booster club has a group trip there. the 1st 3K fans receive an All-Time San Bernardino trading card set. Is also Fireworks night. After the game we are hosting a post-game pizza and soda party for the 66r players and .
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THe way this team is playing, I am not as enthus as I was before about going to Arizona next week.

I will not allow anyone to challenge my love for this team, I have for all of my life. My house is loaded with Dodger stuff, people make fun of me for coming on to this blog… I’m nuts about these guys…. I do support them, and I’ve stated several times that I’ll watch them win or lose, and cheer them on regardless. In 93 when we beat the Giants, it was one of my favorite games, but we were not going anywhere that year…. But I’m telling you, this is all out of frustration, because we should not even be in this position. This is way to good of a team to just fold shop like this. They should be well above .500. Do you guys realize that Torre has set a LOFTY goal of 10 games over for us to get to the playoffs…. Think about that!! 10 games over .500…. That’s not asking a whole lot…. Like I said earlier, we were a 92 win team with Jim Tracy, and an 88 win team with Grady… We’ve regressed… and I’m frustrated, it sucks… Please just let me be pissed off, it has to do with the fact that I care a lot, and hate knowing that it’s looking like it’s going to be a long winter waiting for baseball to come back.. and in the process watching teams that I could care less about playing in the playoffs again…. I’m just tired of it.

Brandon ~ I want everyone to vent. You and I have even complained about lineups, players put out of their usual position, etc. But, just have a little faith in our team. We don’t want to turn into fans like they do have in Philly and boo contstantly. With Blanton going tomorrow, I feel we will have a win — the first of perhaps a string of many wins in a row! But, you watch, Joe will change everything tomorrow and we will all complain about his moves, not our team.

I have a bad feeling if we lose the division by 1 games then we shoould look at that SF series. Wow I think Torre shopuld used Beimel against right handed more often. I guess it time for Sweeney to get one of his worthless single with a blowout game.

Brandon ~ You and I have even made cracks about the players and managing decisions. It seems, though, people who don’t usually chat with us, come on and badmouth OUR team. Sorry if I offended you, Brandon. I really do enjoy venting with you!!!

Brandon, I totally agree. I am also very frustrated with the Dodger organization for the past 15 years or so. Fox, Ned and company have stalled and stagnated this once proud organization. I said it last year and I will restate it here, we will not win a championship or regain our past prominence with Ned as our GM. He just doesn’t have the tools.

I agree with you 57dodger about Ned. I know it looks like he tried to do the right thing by getting Manny. But, you and I know he probably won’t be back next year. Heaven forbid, they’d have to spend some money — that means proabably no CC or Sheets either. And who knows what the heck he will do with the rest of our young players.

To me, this could easily have been a 90 win team… Somewhere around there. But the full potential was never reached, there seemed to be some chaos going on at times. Things looked up when we aquired Blake and Manny, I really would have thought that would seal our ticket to the playoffs. For whatever reason, we still fail to just “get it”. We were lucky last night when AZ lost. That’s not going to happen too often, mostly because they have very consistent pitching. We don’t have consistent anything. We have to have a nice streak come on soon, and this was totally not the way to start a road trip that’s goint o be long and rough already…. Guess the Phils are a little pissed that we swept them last week.

Frustrating…..It seems that every year at mid-season we scramble to make moves for the sake of making moves, just to finish slightly above .500. We begin every season overly optimistic because we’ve been fed countless media snippets from Ned and Frank about how players x and y, while coming off down years, are injury prone or past their prime, will solve the problems of last year. McCourt knows season ticket sales will dwindle the next year if they have a losing year and Colletti knows he might lose his job if his $120 million creation fails; at midseason they panic to salvage the season.

While I have enjoyed seeing Manny in LA, and would rather see the team winning for the remainder of the season, I also would have understood if they went the route of Pittsburgh/Cleveland and traded away their free-agents to be/ underperformers Kent, Lowe, Nomore, Pierre(I know that’s farfetched) while they had some value.
Ned’s poor offseason choices have plagued our team and will continue to limit our team’s ability to reach the world series.

HOLY CRAP!! A RUDY SEANEZ SIGHTING!! WE’VE GOT A CHANCE!!! HAHAHAHA…. I take it back… Manny’s just ready to get the hell out of Philly. I’m really surprised he’s not homered in this series…. with this park and all.

ahaha, absolutely TruBlue, I’m in las vegas… still some day left… A friend of mine is having my fiance and I over for surf and turf…. Lobster and steak…. I’m looking forward to that… Nothing like a few glasses of wine to get you over your Monday and a brutal Dodger loss… We’ll get em’ tomorrow guys…. I’ll do my best to stay positive… It’s a little rough, but if TruBlue can do it… So can I damnit!! haha, see you guys.

The season is far from over, and I will remain positive that good things will happen. However, I remember back in April how many of us were willing to ride a roller coaster with this team this year, knowing from the get go, that this may not be their year. We wanted this whole group of young players to get their playing time so they can develop, and what happens this year happens for good or bad. I was certainly all for it and still am. It was all about the damage Ned had caused in acquiring certain centerfielders to name a few.
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Also, back in April, we thought we had a much different manager in Joe Torre than we had in Grady Little, and that is turning out to be something of a joke now (375 songs and counting, and yes,they are not all about him, but I bet he is up there in topics with JP). I feel much of this season could have been different if Torre had put the best lineup out on the field from day one, and he didn’t do that. Furcal getting injured just added to the frustration, and an instant “I need a lead off man” mentality for Torre to feel he had to play JP, making it impossible for him to see anyone else in the leadoff position, which just added to lineup chaos.
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I still think about the series in Houston, where the Dodgers began a pretty good winning streak then too. It was all kids in the lineup except for Kent, and it was great. They were winning games and they had great chemistry and they were having fun. Then once JP and Jones (per their request thinking they would help the team) came back, they went back to their old ways of seeming not to care (I don’t believe they don’t care, at least most of them).
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Then we get Blake and Manny, and for a few weeks, once again, things seem to be going great. Manny’s doing great, the other veterans are doing well, and the kids are finally “getting it.” Wonderful chemistry once again.
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Now we find ourselves in the same situation we have been all year with a common factor – Joe Torre. He has not managed this team well from day one,and this is the reason the team is where it’s at, not the players. Many of us have said time and time again, if he would have only played the right lineup from day one, we would be ahead in the division looking down on the dbacks. He has reworked the lineup too many times to count now, will not give Russell a day off eventhough if he needs it, won’t bat Andre and James against lefties because they are lefties (the only stat he seems to be concerned with), and pitching issues as well. He’s wanted his veterans all along, and now he has them, and he still can’t win with them.
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However, eventhough I have written many songs to the contrary, I am an optimist, and whether we get into the post season or not, I think we have learned a great deal about this team, especially our young players, and I think they have a great future ahead of them, whether it’s this season or next. I still think we can pull this season off. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy in Philly, so we just have to get through this and get back to playing our own division. I know we haven’t done well against our own division, but I think we are certainly due to tear it up. I am still willing to ride the roller coaster, and I will be there when the ride comes to an end. All this in my opinion of course!
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Sorry for the extremely long post (well over my limit, I’m sure), but hey – I am the mom/June Darlin’ – LOL!!
I think I am learning from Dad/Eric :)

I thought about the comments this morning about how we would love a manager that has some spark, some enthusiasm, and doesn’t blame the kids for all the things bad ( Scoscia). We have far from that. I don’t think this is a player issue as much as it is a management issue. With the exception of maybe Russell, he really hasn’t valued the young players like he should have. Also, we have had all these other veterans in the clubhouse, but it seems all they care about is themselves lately. It’s sad that it took Manny, Blake and now Maddux to come here for the young players to actual see their potential ( Matt and Andre for sure). Ned and Joe are the problem, not the players.

what a crappy game. What a crappy day all around, but that’s just at this end. It’ll probably get worse before it gets better, but doesn’t take the sting out.

I’d like to hear anyone blame the younger guys for losing these two games, because it was Dre and Ethier putting runs on the boards, and no one else did ____ offensively. If anyone did put blame on the young guys, It’d probably sound a lot like the campfire scene from Blazzing Saddles.

This was a team loss. plain and simple. And if we’re getting to October, the TEAM is gonna have to do it. Not the Vets, not the young guys, THE TEAM.

I’m off to work for another paltry shift. Sometimes I feel it’s karma for making fun of Juan Pierre wanting to start everyday, heh. Hope everyone has a good evening, and if things start to get down, just remember, at least it’s not 1989, or 2005. Any fan of the DOdgers, or any LA Sports team, should know ANYTHING’s possible.

QUESTION? Did our pitchers ever show up for today’s game. Just got home and skimmed thru MLB.TV. Was pathetid to say the least. We stink pretty bad at times. Where’s our power??????????????
I’m sick of our inability to get more than a run here and there.
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This team is going nowhere soon.

I feel your frustration Brandon. This team is all of that and then some. What makes it even harder is that they have the players to make a run at it, but seeming lack the fire. If a team takes on the personality of its manager, then this one has personified theirs to a tee. The two runs they had when JP went down and it was just the kids, and right after they got Manny, it was the youthful enthisiasm that shown through. They al relaxed and had fun until Torre got ahold of it and brought if back down to his staid level by playing inferior players.

When the season ends and management looks back on why they didn’t achieve their goals, they’ll blame it on injuries and inexperience. Exactly the opposite is true of course, but the PVLs and manager won’t get any of it.

I said it in spring training (and as I recall caught some flack for it), but exactly when does Torre instill winning? They played lousy in ST, which I think is when Torre should’ve laid down the law from day one and said we start winning NOW. Especially so since it was a mostly new coaching staff with a bigger than life reputation. Instead Joe carried ST through the first 100 games of the season, and still will field a line-up that makes no sense. My guess it that even though he now supposedly knows his team, next year will be the same all over again.

If they go into AZ 5 games down, with AZs pitching I expect them to deal the knockout blow. Then someone (Frank) has to take a good look at the personnel he has running the show and make some serious decisions.

Given his track record though my confidence level in him choosing the right ones is close to nil.

Good Evening Enchanted ~ very tough game to watch today, what I did watch of it. Great post as always, and it really does come back to the beginning and how the management handled the many issues that seem to still be issues today. Manny and company aren’t the answers like some thought, I guess. I hope you had a good day, busy I’m sure :)

Boblee – From what I saw, Kershaw gave up 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st, calmed down, and then left in the 5th with 2 or 3 men on. After that the bullpen pretty much imploded, and I am not even sure who pitched – I remember seeing Jason Johnson come in for Kersh, and cleaned up pretty good, but then something went wrong – it became 6-2 real quick, and I do remember Beimel pitching as well. It wasn’t a pretty game, and I was doing other things so I was kind of in and out. Now I am watching NASCAR, and it’s pretty exciting.

dnelly ~ Nascar? Kershaw gave up 6 runs and Johnson gave up 3. Even when we were down 6 -2, I thought we’d still have a chance if we could score a couple in our next at bat. But, it didn’t happen so, I will keep my fingers crossed, and wish the guys good luck tomorrow.

I have been watching all season. Where have you been? I like Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman and some others. I don’t watch it every weekend, but I have been keeping track pretty regularly. This one in Bristol was a big deal when we lived in Tennessee. We had a few friends that went every year. I am sure they are still going.

enchanted, Torre faced a moment of truth when Manny came aboard. Manny was hammering the ball, the kids were infused with his light-hearted enthusiasm, and the team was winning. But what did Grandpa Joe focus on? Manny’s hair–and the media ran with it. What a waste of f**king energy. Had Torre embraced Manny’s idiosyncrasies, laughed along side him, and even donned a Manny wig, I’ll bet a couple Dodger dogs this team would be in first place. What a stick in the mud. Torre–choose your battles wisely in the future!! You had a chance for REAL leadership here…and you blinked. You’re supposed to lead men to achieve their highest potential–not act like some high school principal enforcing a dress code with a sour look on his face.

kpookiemon ~ Well said, sir! Manny lost his power, when he cut his hair.

Dnelly ~ I was kidding about Nascar. I watch it too. I like Kyle also (he’s a young gun, just like our Dodger favorites). I also like Tony Stewart because he’s unpredictable and Elliot Sadler (used to drive the M & M’s car and I love anything M & M’s) At least Kyle drives the car now, even though it’s now a Toyota.

trublue ~ I do like Tony Stewart too. Eric is a big Jimmy Johnson fan, along with a bunch of others. Eric is even in charge of a fantasy league so he is really into it. I even found out Andre is a big NASCAR fan too. He’s favorite is Jeff Gordon. He had mentioned it in an article I had read a while back.

One is fine. It will go up on a wall anyway. As far as NASCAR fantasy, I am sure all the things you mentioned are part of it, but I am sure Eric would love to enlighten us. I think it would be fun to do next year. I am going to try and do football this year also.

If you do fantasy football, you will really enjoy it. Just get all the readiing material you can about the players (Barnes & Noble will have the magazines you will need) and make a list of the best for each position.

trublue~ Eric also told me he watches it on his computer, like gameday for baseball, and I have done that a few times too, and it’s really kind of fun watching it that way if I can’t watch it live on television due to teenagers in the house, etc.

I already have the magazines. Michael has already drafted, so I am going to let him help me. Bill will probably do his in the next few days. I haven’t read any of the info yet, but I will. This last week was all about school, so this week, I should be able to at least get my list going.

I wonder if the players read this blog when they are on the road — to pass time while in their rooms. Just in case, I’d like to give Andre; Matt; Russell; Manny and the rest of the team a shout out — I BELIEVE IN YOU GUYS AND KNOW THINGS WILL TURN AROUND. JUST KEEP WITHIN STRIKING DISTANCE AND BEFORE YOU KNOW IT, YOU WILL BE IN FIRST PLACE WITH THE DIAMONDBACKS, SAYING “WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED”!

There’s no need to panic. The Dodgers have a good offense and the best ERA in the National League. They’re going to win plenty of games down the stretch. They just ran into a team swinging hot bats in a hitter-friendly park.

The Dodgers lost the first two games of their 4-games series with Arizona and came back to win the next two. The Dodgers have a good shot at doing the same with the Phillies. After this series is over, the Dodgers do not play another above-.500 team the rest of the season, with the exception of Arizona.

This team wants to win and will find a way to get it done. While I can’t guarantee a division title, I’m certain we will not see a repeat of last year.

i hope im not bothering anyone but im still looking for some people to fill my fantasy league. let me know if anyone is interested. i dont wanna just set the league to public cause then i’ll get people who stop trying 3 weeks in and thats no fun.
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send me an email if your interested or if you know someone that might be.
it’ll be fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How was the scout function.? I just assumed you were watching the race. The Dodger game wasn’t too good,but you know, we knew this trip to Philly wasn’t going to be easy for them. I really don’t think they are giving up like some people believe. I’m not giving them any excuses, but have a little faith, right?

Ah, ah, don’t tell me what happened! I have the race on my DVR and it’s not to the halfway point yet.

I reviewed the blog and saw a question about how we score in our NASCAR fantasy league. We score just like the drivers do, plus I give bonus points for qualifying – 10 for being on the pole and 5 for 2nd.

Yes, I’m sure there wasn’t much to read after you take away Oberon’s comments. Talk about Invasion of the Name Changers, how about Invasion of Oberon – turns all ITDers into mind-numbing idiots – LOL!!!

LMAO!!! I just got done cleaning up after having a bbq with friends. Well, they are new friends (Michael’s pitching coach and new fiance w/ four kids), so I am all hyped up and ready to go – no need for coffee, but I will read instead. BTW – Ben (Michael’s pitching coach) LOVED the “Baseball’s Golden Age” book. His fiance doesn’t know anything about baseball, so sad, but I told her I would show her the way – LOL!!!

The Order of the Arrow is an organization within the Boy Scouts. It’s an honor to be in it. I don’t want to get into too much detail, but once you get to a certain rank and a few for qualifications, you are eligible to be elected by your fellow scouts to the Order of the Arrow. You do a lot of interesting things, but it concentrates on service to others.

There are 3 levels of membership and there are ceremonies to induct you into each of them. Matt is on a ceremony team. They dress in Indian regalia (that they make themselves) and have long speeches that tell the candidates what is expected of them. Matt is quite good at his role in this and has a great time doing it. He’s earned honors for himself as an expert. We go to 10 – 12 ceremonies a year.

It’s really quite amazing what Scouting has done for him. He grew up a “follower”. Having the big sister that he has, it’s really no wonder. But he’s turned into a leader in a lot of way. Scouting has had a big part in this.

He also took drama in his freshman year and now he really likes performing. His biggest monologe is 5 minutes long and he delivers it with flair. If you were not his father, you might say he has a little ham in him……. :-)

LOL!! That’s great Eric. So, is Matt a junior or senior? Out of my kids, I would have to say Michael is more of a leader than Mariya. I think that just comes from the position he plays in baseball,and the mindset pitchers have to have. However, Mariya is very strong willed, and doesn’t back down easily from her viewpoints. Her viewpoints are sometimes much different from mine, but I admire her for having them and not letting her friends sway them. BTW – she is just beginning the driving experience. That is definitely going to be my husband’s job – LOL!!!

dnelly-i just sent you a message on facebook let my know if you have questions.
drafting is really easy. the draft order is randomly selected just before it starts, then it snakes through untill all spots on the roster are full. you can look at all th eleague settings once you sign up…and if you decide you dont want to do it you can delete your team as long as its before the draft.

Different viewpoints? Really? How unusual! LOL! And that’s OK. One of the things I loved the most about my dad is that he respected my rights to have my own views. He never ridiculed me (well, maybe my musical choices – LOL!).

Part of it with Mariya is she is much more popular in school than I was. I was on the swim team, but I was still rather quiet and just went about my day. I had a few good friends where she has many. However, one of those friends is still my best friend today. Mariya and I do have a lot of good moments, but we are the typical mother/daughter thing most of the time. We go to an annual Mother/Daughter tour up in Sacramento every year called the Revolve Tour. It features Christian rock bands and the focus is on teenage girl issues, which really haven’t changed much since I was in highschool other than maybe a little more “in your face” type attitude because of the media with movies and music now a days. We have a really good youth program at our church who really focus on all those teenage issues, and it’s great to see Mariya take those steps in faith.

It sounds like you’re doing just fine with her! Mother/Daughter issues can really be nasty some times. Keeping the communication lines open is so important. Any two people are going to have issues with each other. But as long as you keep talking to each other, you can work out just about anything. With me and my daughter, our problem is that we’re so much alike. We’ve had a million things between us over the years and while we’re not exactly perfect, Maddie and I are doing OK. We’ve started to have lunch together during the week and we get to talk, just the two of us. It’s been a while, and we’re both loving it!

No kidding!! My issue with her is primarily academic, but I think this year she appears to be heading into this junior year with a much different attitude about getting work done. My husband and Mariya do a lot together, too, so I know that will help in the long run. Even the boys she tends to like are boys that are a lot like him. She doesn’t realize it, but that’s okay for now- lol!!. It means she is looking into the quality of a person rather than the artificial things, which is a very good thing.

My wife had a poor relationship with her father for a long time. They’re ok now, but growing up it was rough. She’s made sure that I understand just how important it is for a girl to have a strong relationship with her dad.

Last year Matt had some difficulty with grades in the first semester, but a lot of it had to do with the physical troubles we talked about. When the 2nd semester started, we had a great talk about how bad it is to fall behind and he did great, staying on top of everything.

Yes, this last year, she had a pretty big scare with grades, but I think she wants to drive so that will be the one motivating factor – LOL!! Michael doesn’t have issues with grades other than being occasionally lazy. However, with going to this USC camp next weekend, he knows the grades have to step up a notch if he wants to go to a school like that. So, hopefully the camp will not only motivate the athlete in him, but the academic Michael as well.

As far as Mariya’s relationship with Bill. Bill saw that his sister didn’t have a very strong relationship with his dad, and I think like you, he wants to have that strong relationship with her. Michael and I have the natural connection with baseball. Even though we like different teams, he knows I will always be there to watch him play first, even if he is playing for the Giants one day – LOL!!

Good morning ITD. I happened to be browsing through Yahoo sports and was pleasantly surprised. I’m actually on Russell’s gallery. Just click on Dodgers, then roster, then Russell. At the bottom of his stats page is his picture gallery. I’m in the Kapler catch on the right, the blonde at the bottom. How fantastic to actually be in his picture gallery!! I always knew that Russell and I were on the same page! :)

xoxrussell~ That was pretty good. Not only did I see you, if you look on the yahoo’s mlb homepage, it names the fantasy hot hitters for the week,and who’s picture is there – none other than Andre Ethier himself as #1 – Wow!! Thanks, and that is pretty cool getting into that picture!!

Maybe we can trade for a catcher so Martin can play 3b, a 5th starter and a utility guy currently playing on a first place team. We can offer 5 more prospects (such as we did for blake, manny and maddux) for former dodgers aybar, navarro and jackson…what we got back for those guys do not wear blue anymore. Times that by 15 prospects and its no wonder we suck. of course most people here a few years ago as I complained told me they were no good and not needed. Trading a good young catcher and pitcher for 2 months of a avg 3b is the circle. were never winning guys until they stop trying to win this year and try to win for the next 10 years. Don’t make me break out that list of players our GM has aqquired, it’s sad and pathetic. Meanwhile with the owner out front in center taking the spotlight away from team in manny trade, in torre signing, its evident what matters most is fans in stadium, not winning. If we wanted to win by now we would be winning. Look at the Angels.

jungar ~ Intersting thoughts about Russell playing third base. I agree that at times, especially this year, we do not look very good. It seems that when our pitching is good, there is not much run support and therefore, no room for error. I think, however, this year, our hitting will come together in time to make it to the playoffs. Arizona hasn’t had their “dry spell” yet and they will — all teams go through it and, that is when we can take over first place. I do think the team is still playing loose and for the most part, having a good time out there. Manny has added that.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the off-season. That will really tell us how much McCourt & Ned really want to win.

I don’t think the problem lies in Frank and Ned not wanting to win – spending the millions they have is proof of that. If they didn’t care, Frank pockets the gazillions of dollars and plays rookies. The problem lies in the fact that they have a general lack of baseball acumen. Frank knows PR, so he hires a PR guy as a GM. What he then gets are marque names, but very little talent. Virtually anyone on the planet would know not to hire Torre to manage a youthful team, but again PR wins out. No one in their right mind would’ve hired Andruw once they saw how fat he was, but Boras’ PR paid off and Ned bought it. Same with Schmidt and Pierre. A bunch of money and no common sense is a fool’s combination. Until a real baseball GM is hired, one who knows what’s right for the team from manager to ballboy, this cycle will play out year after year.

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